Alliance and Leicester slow to honour grant of probate

Grant of probate to a woman in her role as executor of a relative's estate was not enough to convince Alliance and Leicester to release money from a savings account.

Choosing a professional executor may have helped speed the process up, as the complainant was forced to write to the Daily Telegraph in a bid to force the bank to honour her request.

After 70 days the group - which was recently acquired by Spanish bank Santander -still had not released the £60,000, nor had it responded 'satisfactorily' to written and telephone communication.

A professional executor should be able to resolve such issues without recourse to a newspaper, as practitioners have an in-depth knowledge of the probate system and may command more weight when it comes to dealing with professional entities.

The reader describes how she "lost track of how many calls [were] made", a situation that could add unnecessary stress during an already difficult time.